Snow removal is a time consuming, labor intensive, and equipment intensive process. Accordingly, snow removal is a very expensive endeavor for communities of all sizes and populations, especially those communities located in northern tier states and provinces. The large equipment and labor costs involved in snow removal divert large portions of municipal, state, and Federal budgets and results in increased taxes.
Traditional methods of snow removal include plowing newly fallen snow into rows. The rows of snow are then either plowed to the side of the road or delivered to a dump site via graders, front-end loaders and dump trucks. This process is very time consuming, inefficient, and costly. In areas of dense housing, the difficulty of snow removal is significantly increased. For instance, with regard to the roads and parking lots serving high density areas typified by multi-family dwellings and commercial buildings, the snow removal vehicle must maneuver in relatively confined areas, which in turn requires a smaller sized and less efficient snow removal device. Further, the collected snow is often stored on site, eliminating the use of numerous parking stalls.
Some previously developed snow removal systems have attempted to address the problem of snow storage by melting the collected snow into water. Often the snow is loaded into a tank having a heating device disposed therein. The heat generated by the heating device is used to heat and convert the snow into a liquid having a fraction of the volume of the collected snow. The water is then disposed of, often by discharging the water to a storm drain. Although somewhat effective, previously developed snow removal systems are not without their problems. For instance, it has been found that the systems fail to mix the collected snow into the tank of heated water. This results in inefficiencies in the snow melting process, resulting in an increased rate of energy consumption and a decrease in the snow melting capacity of the snow removal system.
In some previously developed snow removal systems, a snow blower is attached to a duct. It has been discovered that under some conditions, such as when the temperature drops to near freezing or below, the duct of the snow blower can become clogged with snow, at least decreasing the efficiency of the snow blower and most often leading to the duct becoming fully obstructed, halting snow removal operations all together.
In other previously developed snow removal systems, the heat contained in a combustion heating source is discharged through an exhaust pipe. The exhaust pipe is not oriented to pass through the heated water, thus a significant amount of heat contained in the exhaust gases is discharged out the stack and not used for snow heating purposes. Thus, the thermal efficiency of the system is not maximized.
Thus, there exists a need for a snow removal system that is maneuverable, eliminates the need for snow storage, efficiently heats and mixes collected snow, is easily manufactured, reliable, inexpensive to manufacture and operate, and meets or exceeds the performance requirements of the end user.